The committee organizing the Conservative Party’s leadership race has announced that party members will vote for a new leader on June 27.
A conservative leadership race has been in the works since former party leader Andrew Scheer announced he would be stepping down from his role after failing to defeat Justin Trudeau in the 2019 election.
Former MP and deputy leader Lisa Raitt, who is overseeing the leadership race as co-chair, has notified potential candidates that they have 10 days to make a decision on whether they intend to run for the position.
“People, if they haven’t made up their mind, they’re going to have to make up their mind in the next 10 days,” said Raitt.
Party insiders told CBC News that hopeful candidates are expected to pay an entry fee of $300,000 and acquire 3,000 signatures from party members to partake in the contest.
The short timeline for the race is due to the possibility that a Liberal minority government could lose the confidence of the House which would trigger another federal election.
“Right now, we don’t know how long is in this mandate therefore we felt it was important to get this done before the summer, the barbecue circuit, for the new leader to make plans and get ready for the policy convention in Quebec City,” Raitt told CTV News.
True North has been keeping track of who is considering running for the leadership contest since Scheer resigned from his post in December.
Several prominent Conservatives are considering a bid for leadership.
Among those who have announced that they are intending to run in the race are Conservative MP Erin O’Toole and former conservative organizer Bryan Brulotte, who says he is “fully committed to running.”
About a dozen others are suspected to be considering a bid for the leadership including Conservative MP and industry critic Michelle Rempel Garner, House Leader Candice Bergen and Conservative finance critic Pierre Poilievre.
The former attorney general for the Harper Government Peter MacKay is also believed to be interested in running for leadership.
